Social media ethics

Andy Sernovitz talks about social media ethics particularly about disclosure, which was not 100% clear to me in the last lecture. Watching this video has cleared some confusion I had as well as gave me some ideas about social media ethics. Sernovitz emphasizes these FTC regulations in the clip:
1) Truthfulness in social media
2) Monitor conversations and correct misstatements
3) Create social media policies and training programs. If you company has all this, you are protected from a liability.

What firms engaging in social media practices should do is to never pay cash. I recently found out from an honest YouTube beauty guru that YouTube actually pays them per click in a video. I was a bit shocked because I often watch YouTube videos about products including cosmetics, clothes or electronics. Some of the bloggers pretended they purchased the products by themselves and gave viewers false reviews. I do not completely give full credit to those bloggers who get paid for giving reviews since they are not reliable as well as the brands that are compensating the bloggers. As viewers have written harsh comments on videos of bloggers who do not fully disclosure, there has been a movement of bloggers posting a FTC Disclaimer such as “All products mentioned were purchased by me. None of the companies mentioned are paying me for this video. All opinions are my own.”

As we can see from this FTC rule examples, disclosure has to be real, and the policies and programs should be easy to do well and easy to understand for consumers. I learned that companies have to be careful about who you hire because it is the brand that gets hit when something goes wrong. I will eventually not trust the brand as a consumer. I also learned that compensations can be cash, samples, trips, etc.

The particular part of the video has got me thinking more about social media ethics is “we have a chance to do something good.” I think companies make mistakes because they are short-term minded. It is very easy to focus on short-term gains by deceiving and being not honest about themselves to consumers. Everyone has a chance to do something good. What really differentiates an ethical company and unethical company is how honest a company is. They should realize and implement ethical social media practices as Sernovitz says “You do well by doing good.”

Regards,
Lee